Snapchat push out third-party developers

Snapchat push out third-party developers

Third-party Snapchat apps are about to get a lot less reliable.

The company is taking new steps to tighten security and limit outside apps' access to its service, the company revealed Thursday.

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"Almost every security issue we’ve had since I’ve been here has been related to API abuse,” Snapchat's Tim Sehn told Backchannel.

Snapchat has never published an official API, but developers were able to reverse engineer one, which helped spur the numerous third-party Snapchat apps. This issue came into sharp focus last year when one such app was hacked, resulting in the leak of thousands of users' private photos and videos. For its part, the company has maintained such apps violate its terms of service, but security experts had criticized them for not doing more to combat the problem.

That's changing. The company has been steadily ramping up its efforts to block these apps from its platform, Snapchat executives said in a lengthy interview with Backchannel.

Snapchat not only works with Apple and Google to try to block apps in their stores that violate Snapchat’s terms of service, it also started cracking down on users who install such apps. First comes a warning, and then, if the user persists in employing the third-party app, Snapchat will lock the account. Snapchat hopes that these measures will no longer be necessary, since it now feels it has fortified its platform to repel all the piggy-backing apps.


User reviews for some of these apps, many of which allow users to save messages without the other person realizing, indicate that some of them are no longer working as reliably as they once did. Others that Mashable tested, however, are still working though Snapchat does log you out from the main app every time you open a third-party service.

Snapchat also previewed its first transparency report Thursday, which "will explore government requests we have received for users’ account information, government demands to remove users’ content, and requests to take down content for alleged copyright violations."

This comes during a significant time for the company, which is reportedly raising a new round of funding at a valuation some have placed at up to $19 billion. Snapchat has also beefed up its features over the past year, most recently with its new discover platform and a partnership with Square that allows users to send money to each other.

As the company ramps up its business and looks to acquire more users, locking down its security and allaying privacy concerns is increasingly important. On that note, Sehn acknowledges Snapchat's previous missteps in communicating with its users.


“I think one of the mistakes was not apologizing quickly enough,” he said. “So I want to apologize to our users.”